I’ve been trying to compile a list of the things that have surprised me about Vietnam.

Unfortunately, I keep forgetting them before I write them down. Below are a few I’ve been able to remember.

To some these may seem obvious, but please remember that there are others to whom these will all be new.

  • Music on public transit. Buses play loud pop tunes. Trains play loud pop tunes. Taxi drivers play loud pop tunes. You get the idea.
  • Individual air conditioners. Fortunately, the Vietnamese are no strangers to air conditioning. Central air conditioning, on the other hand, appears to be a (literally) foreign concept. Here, each room is likely to have its own air conditioning unit close to the ceiling, operated by remote control.
  • US-104 keyboards. If you’ve seen the Vietnamese alphabet, you’ll understand why it seems odd to me that the computer keyboards here are your run-of-the-mill, 104-key North American keyboards.
  • Squat toilets. They aren’t everywhere, but I’ve seen a number of squat toilets in older buildings, and on the train we took to Danang. For the uninitiated, these are essentially holes in the floor over which you squat in order to do your business. Most have raised, foot-shaped platforms on either side of the hole to encourage proper positioning.
  • Musical horns. North American cars, trucks, motorcycles and buses all seem to use subtle variations on the same horn sound: usually two notes sounding simultaneously at an interval resembling a minor third. Here, a cornucopia of horn sounds provides a more heterogeneous cacophony on the roads. Our tour bus driver in central Vietnam had at least four or five different horn tones available to him. I suspect there could be a lucrative market selling customized horn tones for motorbikes here.
  • Urban Roosters. Actually, just one rooster. The one [expletive deleted] rooster that begins crowing outside my window around 4:00 a.m. each morning.
  • Pronouns. The only language related surprise I’ll include here is the quantity of pronouns provided by the Vietnamese language. As an example, I’ll point out only that there are different pronouns for an uncle younger than your father, and one older than your father.

This concludes our lesson for today.